The only trace left of Sadao Yasue was a box of rocks that was given to his siblings by military personnel after he died
The former US marine knew the calligraphy-covered flag he took from a fallen Japanese soldier 73 years ago was more than a keepsake of the second world war. When Marvin Strombo finally handed the flag back to Sadao Yasue’s younger brother and sisters on Tuesday, he understood what it really meant to them.
Younger brother Tatsuya Yasue buried his face into the flag and smelled it, then he held Strombo’s hands and kissed them. His elder sister Sayoko Furuta, sitting in her wheelchair, covered her face with both hands and wept silently as Tatsuya placed the flag on her lap.
As the first and only trace of their brother, the flag represented a treasure that would fill a deep void for Yasue’s family. Japanese authorities had only given them a wooden box containing a few rocks, a substitute for the remains that were never found.
The flag’s white background is filled with the signatures of 180 friends and neighbours in the tea-growing mountain village of Higashishirakawa, wishing Yasue’s safe return.
“Good luck forever at the battlefield, ” a message on it reads. Looking at the names and their handwriting, Tatsuya Yasue clearly recalls some of their faces and their friendship with his brother.
“The flag will be our treasure, ” he said at his 400-year-old house. The 89-year-old farmer said the return of the flag brought closure. “It’s like the war has finally ended and my brother can come out of the limbo.”
Yasue last saw his older brother alive the day before he left for the South Pacific in 1943. The siblings had a small send-off picnic of sushi and Japanese sweet mochi for the oldest brother outside his military unit.
